As a teenager I become very concerned with a nuclear confrontation between the Soviet Union and the United States. This was back in the 80’s. My steps to preparedness started back then. The Soviet Union fell, I married, had kids, and my interest in preparedness fell by the way side.

The events of 9-11 as well as the economic troubles starting in 2008 spurred my interest in the need to prepare. Having children changed my perspective tremendously in that it was not only me that I was responsible for. Over the past few years i have seen a trend developing that this country is in – and it is not good. I now look at some sort of collapse, correction, or reset as a “when”, not an “if”.

– Rourke

Your Turn!

OK folks – how about you? We would appreciate it if you would provide your thoughts, commnts, and maybe even answer the question yourself.

13 Comments

I guess when I was a kid…grew up in a farming and ranching community. It seemed as though our family was always canning something growing something and now I wish I could return to those times. Things were fresh, tasted better and we were all more healthy. Prepping was just another part of living in the country. We provided for ourselves and always had enough to give to others. Wow how times have changed..

I grew up in a family with a farm, vast pantry and garden. I’ve always over bought and stored, but didn’t start storing intentionally until the Y2K scare. After a divorce and relocation, I am starting my preparedness from scratch.

I read “Earth Abides” and “Alas, Babylon” when I was very young (8 or 9 years old), and these books profoundly affected my thinking. I became very acutely aware that life is not certain, and that bad things can happen to nice people. I went through a period in my late teens and early twenties when I decided that I should have fun before the crap hits the fan, but settled down to more serious pursuits when kids and marriage came along.

For the last 20 years, I have gardened when I could, always kept a well-stocked pantry, and moved to an area where winters are not so long and harsh. My husband has never really been on-board until the last few years when the pantry saved us through a lay-off.

I evolved into a prepper over the past 5 years! It started out as a hobby—you know, a garden, and a few chickens. Then it grew into a little herd of dairy goats, and then other egg-laying critters. NOW, I see the train wreck coming: the world economy is on shaky ground. As an aging Baby Boomer, I’ve known for a long time that there’s not going to be any Social Security money for me! But it’s become much more serious than just that—everywhere I look, there are abandoned houses and empty business locations. Homelessness is rising. There’s a serious strain on people’s faces. Tough times are here and increasing. So I’ve committed my time, energy, and finances to getting ready to help feed our very large family when they can no longer do it on their own. Grains and other long-term storage food items are being packaged, labeled, and kept in a cool, dry location. Manual food preparation skills are being learned and tools obtained. Seed saving is in full swing. Canning is my new favorite hobby. I’m keeping a positive attitude and a thankful heart as I prepare, prepare, prepare!

I started ‘Prepping’ in earnist in 2002. Prior to that I maintained +/- a 30 day supply of the very.. very basics. Ok now the Why? My employeer actually set off my actions when ‘they’ issued a refinery wide memo while ‘hardening’ the refinery perimeter and ‘enhancing’ security… not unlike the proverbial frogs hind end. In the memo we where told in blut terms that we could not expect either direct corporate, local or federal agencies to provide needed family support during or after a major “event” As the indicated blast radius for 2.5 million tons of compressed gas augmented by well over 11 million gallons of ‘stored fuels’ exceeds the Western downtown limits of my fair city…. I paid attention. My lil burg is a city of just under 300.000 souls. Don’t intend the Drama here… you asked. Coupled with the hydrocarbons, I have other reasons more poliical and social/economic that motivate as well.

It is funny that you would ask these questions today. I just received a similar advertisement from Porter Stansberry, a financial adviser. I sent the e-mail to the account that we had communicated on earlier this month. For the benefit of others on ModernSurvivalOnline, I will briefly describe the message that convinced me to become a “Prepper”. In very simple terms, Stansberry explains the crisis we face with respect to our overwhelming national debt, the loss of the dollar as “The World’s Reserve Currency” and the pending economic collapse. This poignant half hour video motivated me to start saving the “3 Bs” (Beans, Bullets & Band-aids). I have also done significant research on home defense and alternate power.

Since I was a child we prepped in one way or another. Living on the Gulf Coast of Florida, hurricane season was the primer. Moved out west 8 years ago and got serious about 4 years ago. I prep now where I am due to high probability of earthquake. Being a regional city economic situations and grid down as well.

Ever since I went through a couple coup d’état in the Philippines, last one in 1989, I have been evolving into a prepper. There was fighting in the streets, Federal forces and Forces within the government military loyal to President Marcos. I remember the fighting just a mile from the place I was located. The entire capital shut down. It was good to be a US citizen back then. At the US consulate marines were armed, rules of engagement were clear, protect US citizens and defend the grounds of the embassy as if it were holy US ground.

Now I have a family. I worry about providing for them during times of upheaval. I stick to the grey man philosophy. Prepare but be quiet about it. I have not yet divulged the full extent of my prepping to even the closest of family, not ready or comfortable with full disclosure yet. It is important though that I get over this and start to bring like minded into confidence.

H1N1 grabbed my attention but only after I read about he 1918 influenza epidemic that swept the world did I take it seriously.

I did research on food storage and soon had a varied supply of #10 cans for my family for three meals a day with at least one serving of fruit and vegetables a day.

Unless we are camping we don’t use siphon water filters, stoves, or other equipment. The one exception is the solar oven which we use every week. It has been a quite a few years since I thought I would realistically use my food storage but I am always glad to have it.

After Katrina I was curious about just how FEMA operated have taken a large number of the online classes. I found more online classes at Michigan State, John Hopkins, Texas A&M, etc.

That led me to CPR/AED/First Aid classes, CERT training, and the local police and fire department citizen academies.

I started to prepare after the ice storms hit the midwest back in 2009. Then it was mostly just food and warm clothes. As with most on here we see the signs of chaos coming. We moved to a farm in Tennessee so that it is a more level climate area and hàve livestock and gardening and a storage of food. I provide for my wife and 5 kids and want to make sure that i can have a lot better chance of survival when TSHTF. For the last 6 months everything we do has gotten kicked up into high gea4. My wife and the kids are really doing their part now and that makes life easier.

I prefer (self reliant) to prepper or survivalist. I got started in the late 70’s – 80’s

I grew with stories of the great depression from my mother and grandparents, spent my summers working my grandparents farm in Ore. My boy scout, DOD. surviving the Richmond riots, Loma Prieta earthquake, rolling black outs in Ca and just plain hard times.

Now when I look at things in the world, I see bad times are already here and only a small percentage can see it. I’ve wasted time telling people, but they say am nuts or look at me like a deer in the headlights or they say I am coming to your house when the (SHTF).

I live by the “Survival Triangle” rule (may be I should do an article on that)